What Didn't Happen to Division Street

I've lived on SE Division since 2008. Not many folks ventured south of Hawthorne back then. I'm telling this to our new neighbors tucked away in their looming condos so they know that the street they pay so much to live on was, a very short time ago, a slow-moving corridor used mostly for commuting. There is one shining light, though, that warms my admittedly elitist heart: The Oregon Theater for Mature Adults still squats in the midst of all the shiny new pretties like a dog shitting at your tea party. It refuses to get off your newly manicured lawn, and its patrons, in spite of the heavy sidewalk traffic, still skulk into the theater in broad daylight. While you enjoy your delicious wood-fired pizza and Portland-brewed beer across the street, raise your glass in respect to the men jerkin' it inside those walls. I love the audacity of that theater for standing firm on a street where its new residents see it as the last eyesore, the last imperfection on their almost entirely newly constructed stretch of street. Know your history, new neighbors, and respect it.—Anonymous